Tesla CEO Elon Musk has joined several other industry heavyweights urging California to change its response to the Volkswagen emissions scandal.

In an open letter to the California Air Resources Board Chairperson Mary Nichols, Musk, along with several prominent executives in the clean-tech world, urged the government agency to stop focusing on getting Volkswagen to fix its diesel engines. Instead, Musk and his cohorts asked the agency to force Volkswagen to ramp up its efforts on zero-emissions technology.

"In contrast to the punishments and recalls being considered, this proposal would be a real win for California emissions, a big win for California jobs, and a historic action to help derail climate change," the authors wrote. "The bottleneck to the greater availability of zero emissions vehicles is the availability of batteries. There is an urgent need to build more battery factories to increase battery supply, and this proposal would ensure that large battery plant and related investments, with their ensuing local jobs, would be made in the U.S. by Volkswagen."

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The letter comes after after Volkswagen admitted that millions of its diesel cars are equipped with sophisticated software used to cheat on U.S. emissions tests. It's supposed to roll out fixes throughout 2016.

Musk and his cohorts argue that diesel engines cannot be made to be cleaner than they already are, adding that "there is no real solution." He went on, saying that while "a giant sum of money" could be wasted in California by trying to fix the diesel cars, it could be used more appropriately by forcing Volkswgen to "cure the air, not the cars."

While it's unclear how the state will respond to the emissions scandal, Musk's point seems clear: he wants others to follow his lead, a move that would surely benefit Tesla Motors and its all-electric fleet.

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